When a debut’s as good as Geggie Project it’s worth the wait.
— All About Jazz, USA

In the Fall of 2003, Ottawa double bassist John Geggie invited the internationally renowned improvising pianist Marilyn Crispell to perform with him as part of his annual jazz concert series staged at the National Arts Center. Eight months later, this duo was reunited on stage at the concert hall of the National Library of Canada during the city’s international jazz festival. Buoyed by these performances, the bassist set out to capture some of their musical magic for posterity, this time with a long-time acquaintance of his, Toronto-based drummer Nick Fraser. On October 31, 2006, the trio convened for a three day recording session in the aforementioned hall, a room with a reputation for pristine acoustics but an even greater one for the famous instrument it now houses: the Steinway D owned by the legendary Glenn Gould and bequeathed to this institution in his own will. Given these assets, there is a special aura that glows over the fourteen pieces of this side. Divided equally between composed themes for group improvisation (all penned by Geggie) and spontaneously created pieces, the tracks span a wide array of moods and textures, ranging from the lyrical, to the driving, to the spiky, even the abstract. Who knows? Maybe Glenn may have been smiling from above… And if it were so, chances are you will too when listening to this most vibrant musical offering!

Released a few months prior to Across the Sky (Plunge, 2009) and, despite the two releases really representing one multifaceted debut, Geggie Project is the official first release as a leader from John Geggie, a bassist deserving far greater recognition. Geggie Project finds the Ottawa, Canada-based bassist, Toronto-based drummer Nick Fraser, and inestimable free improvising pianist Marilyn Crispell entering the realm of music as conversation. Given her more recent inward-looking proclivities, it wouldn’t be a huge leap to compare Geggie Project with recent Crispell trio recordings like Storyteller (ECM, 2004), but doing so only completes half the picture.

There’s no denying that Geggie Project leans towards a similar gentle introspection. Certainly Geggie’s seven compositions—comprising half the program and balanced with a series of collective trio improvisations—possess similar markers. The lovely I Wanted More is a rubato tone poem rivaled only by Across the Sky, performed with an understated sense of dramatic tension, with Geggie and Crispell in spontaneous counterpoint and Fraser creating delicate swatches of color.

Geggie’s playing has undergone some remarkable evolutionary leaps over the past couple of years—something clear those who have followed his annual Geggie Concert Series The National Arts Centre Fourth Stage—making it, perhaps, a good things that the bassist waited this long to record his debut as a leader. His confident pizzicato opens the record on Credo; when Fraser and Crispell do enter, the pianist responding to Geggie’s increasingly persistent lines with spare, dark lines and equally impressionistic voicings, the coalescence into form is soft but unmistakably visceral. The group takes just as much time finding its way to Run-Away Sheep‘s quirky form and barely predictable stops-and-starts, while on Or Not, the trio comes as close to swinging as it ever does on the disc; rather than its pulse being firmly defined by any one player, however, it’s built by all—lose one player and the entire forward motion would fall apart like a house of cards.

The seven improvisations peppered throughout the disc are as revelatory as Geggie’s writing—and what really takes this trio away from the ECM aesthetic. Far more angular, and with a drier sound that’s more direct, brief improvs like Ice and Meltwater and Weather Forecast skitter around with a purpose, while the more lyrical Réconfort and starker Entre chien et loup are the dictionary definition of the term “spontaneous composition.” But it’s the closing Bouclier canadien that proves this trio’s truest mettle, with Crispell’s jagged chords, Fraser’s Tony Oxley-informed controlled chaos, and Geggie’s harmonic-driven arco building, over the course of five minutes, a gradually intensifying crescendo of unexpected power and even rarer patience.

When a debut’s as good as Geggie Project it’s worth the wait. When it’s coupled with Across the Sky, it’s a powerful one-two punch that finally rights a major wrong, by providing some much-needed and well-deserved exposure for an artist who has remained a well-kept local secret for far too long.

Here, Ottawa-based bassist and composer John Geggie is joined by drummer Nick Fraser and Marilyn Crispell on a set of 14 compositions recorded in November 2006. The pieces, most of which are collaborative efforts of the three musicians, ring with a dark-tinged authority that does not eschew playfulness and the joy of discovery. From the fractured walking bass line accented by progressively more dissonant note clusters from Crispell that breaks into a game of musical hide-and-seek on Run-Away Sheep, to Geggie’s arco line that weaves in and out of Crispell’s undulating four-note figure, and Fraser’s expressive stick work on View From the Bridge, this is music that is dedicated to a high level of group interaction while scrupulously avoiding cliché - definitely worthy of attention.

… this is music that is dedicated to a high level of group interaction while scrupulously avoiding cliché…

Put a pin anywhere in the lengthy discography of pianist Marilyn Crispell and you’ll stumble on a new facet, an unforeseen window into her turbulent, ever-evolving improvisational discourse. This is because Crispell retains the ability to surprise herself—as must have been the case during her first-ever playing encounter with Louis Moholo-Moholo, the iconic drummer and South African expatriate (now repatriated). The resulting duo session, Sibanye (We Are One), makes for a vibrant contrast with two recent trio efforts involving Crispell and a far-flung roster of colleagues. Bassist Barry Guy, founder of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, enlists Crispell and drummer Paul Lytton for Phases of the Night while Ottawa bassist John Geggie offers Geggie Project, his leader debut, with Crispell and drummer Nick Fraser. (…)

John Geggie, a frequent collaborator of pianist DD Jackson, also finds a satisfying rapport with Crispell on Geggie Project, splitting the program evenly between his original pieces and collective improvised tracks. The recorded sound is uncommonly fine, with Crispell’s bell-like single notes filling out the contours of the opening Credo. Thanks to her seasoned touch, Geggie’s compositions breathe exactly as they should, particularly the rubato ballad Across the Sky and the tempo-based, off-kilter Or Not, which recalls some of Crispell’s work with Paul Motian. Fraser steps up on the starkly contrapuntal View from the Bridge—essentially a drum feature—and pairs up with Crispell authoritatively on Weather Forecast, one of three duets (the others being Entre chien et loup and PH, for piano and bass). Here, as on Sibanye (We Are One) and Phases of the Night, Crispell acquits herself as one of our most adaptable and imaginative pianists, a team player par excellence.

Crispell acquits herself as one of our most adaptable and imaginative pianists, a team player par excellence.